In Their Own Time
by tumshie
Summary: A repost of one of my one-shots, some slight editing. A Harry/Ginny fic. Slightly AU post Hogwarts and surprise surprise a Trelawney prediction comes true.


Disclaimer: The characters other than those you don't recognise belong to JKR

One-shot: Post Hogwarts, Post final battle. Voldie and Death Eaters are gone.

Harry Potter woke slowly, his head was pounding, his mouth was dry and he could feel his stomach churning as it tried to deal with the previous day's intake of rich food and alcohol.

He tried to get out of bed and realised that his right arm was trapped, he looked round to see what the problem was and found himself looking into the eyes of Ginny Weasley, his one time Gryffindor Quidditch team-mate and best friend's sister.

_'Oh shit'_ he thought as he realised that they were both naked. _'what have we done?'_

Harry and Ginny had dated briefly during their respective 6th and 5th years at school, but he had broken it off after Dumbledore's funeral as he thought it was the only way to protect her from Voldemort. Harry hadn't completed school but along with Ron and Hermione had hunted down the remaining Horcruxes before eventually going into battle alongside the Ministry of Magic's Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix.

The battle had been bloody and there had been losses on both sides but in the heat of battle all the fighting had ceased as both sides watched The-Boy-Who-Lived and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the two most hyphenated wizards of their time, engage in single combat, well not quite, for as the two battled the most highly skilled Unspeakables destroyed the remaining Horcruxes deep in the dungeons of the Department of Mysteries. At a signal from an Unspeakable, Nagini, Voldemort's snake was killed by Ron Weasley and the soul fragment destroyed by Hermione Granger.

Voldemort shuddered and he realised that his precautions against death had been overcome. Hate filled his being and he started throwing the Darkest and most lethal battle curses he knew at Harry. Harry stood his ground, he conjured objects in front of the curses, sidestepped them or blocked them with shields. He didn't throw a single curse at his enemy all he did was taunt him about being a hypocrite as he was a Halfblood and said that everyone like him should be destroyed.

Eventually the casting of so many powerful spells took its toll and Voldemort collapsed, exhausted, in front of Harry, then Harry cast the spell he had been waiting all battle to use _'Agape Maximus' _the spell of unconditional love. His psyche unable to cope, Voldemort started writhing on the ground, when the Healers and Mediwitches finally got to him all that remained was a babbling incoherent wreck of a man, tests later found that his brain had been so badly damaged that it would never recover, Voldemort was vanquished, Tom Riddle became a patient in the long-term ward at St. Mungo's alongside the Longbottoms and Gilderoy Lockhart.

That was five years ago, since then Harry had taken a year out to do nothing, he had travelled as a Muggle, backpacking round the world, doing menial jobs, moving on when he was aware of the Magical world catching up with him.

When he returned to Britain he attended a Muggle college learning about business management and a year ago had quietly re-entered Wizarding society and taken control of his inheritance. The Ministry of Magic had approached him to take his family seat on the Wizengamot but he had declined and had placed Arthur Weasley as his proxy. He did however offer to sit on the Goblin and Centaur Liaison Committees and had made more progress in six months than had taken place in the past hundred years.

Ginny had trained as a Mediwitch and was now one of the most sought after midwives in the Wizarding world, her client list was always full and she was said to be married to her job. She hadn't dated anyone since Dumbledore's funeral and many a young wizard had been heartbroken by her refusal to date them.

Ron and Hermione had finally stopped dancing round each other and acknowledged their feelings for each other. Ron was first choice Keeper for the Chudley Cannons and had stopped their record-breaking losing streak, they still weren't Championship contenders but were getting there. Hermione after completing a Wizarding Law course had set up a charity to help displaced house-elves and other Magical creatures, what she didn't know was that Harry had bankrolled the start up and had been making sure the running costs were more than adequately covered. He had also employed at least 12 of the displaced house-elves to care for the many properties he owned.

Which brings us to the previous day. It had been Ron and Hermione's wedding and it had been held at the Potter Mansion. Hermione's parents had been killed in a Death Eater raid after the final battle, when people's guards had started to slip. They were two of the last people to die and their assailants including Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape had been killed while trying to escape by Neville Longbottom who was a trainee Auror.

The wedding had been a fantastic day, Ginny had been Hermione's Chief Bridesmaid and Harry was Ron's Best Man. This had thrown the two of them together, and as the evening wore on Ginny and Harry spent their time ensuring that everyone was having a good time. They had danced together and spoke together but no one thought anything of it, after all they were used with seeing them together at family gatherings and on formal occasions where one of them required a partner.

But this night was different, whether it was the hormones infusing the air or the amount of Firewhisky they had consumed, this night something had rekindled. After Ron and Hermione had left for their honeymoon, and those who were staying the night had drifted off to bed, Harry and Ginny sat on a loveseat in Harry's study and after six long years Harry finally spoke about why he'd broken up with her.

"Ginny" he began, "I need to tell you something, six years ago at Dumbledore's funeral I broke up with you to stop Riddle from using you against me. He took everyone I loved away from me, Mum and Dad, Sirius, Dumbledore, I nearly lost you Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville at the Ministry the year before and it nearly stopped me functioning, I pled with Dumbledore to kill me when Tom possessed me that night because I thought it would have killed him too, and then everyone would have been safe. I realised afterward that it wouldn't have worked."

"When we were dating it was the best few weeks of my life, I truly came to know what unconditional love was, you loved me, Harry Potter. You knew all my faults and shortcomings and still loved me, not The-Boy-Who-Lived, and I loved you and still do, I thought the only way to protect you was to leave you and reduce the size of target painted on you. I knew you were still a target as most of your family were fighting for the Order, but as my girlfriend you would have been target No.2 after me, and I wasn't willing to do that to you. Can you forgive me for that?"

As Harry spoke tears had formed in Ginny's eyes, she had worked out everything over that summer, it had hurt to begin with but when she realised what he had done, it had made her determined to live through the war and to wait for him to come back to her. She hadn't studied divination but had a natural gift of the sight, she wasn't a full seer but had inherited the gift from her mother's side of the family where all the women had the sight to a greater or lesser extent, this was part of what made her such a good midwife.

She didn't speak, all she did was look deep into his eyes and then leant forward and kissed him full on the lips. After his initial shock Harry melted into the kiss, both felt a shiver pass through their bodies and they drew apart. "Wow" they said in unison and leant back in to kiss again. All their pent-up emotions went into the kiss as their tongues met and did battle. His hands went down round her waist and hers went up into his hair, or what was left of it. Fed up with the mess his hair was if it was too long, Harry now sported a No.1 cut, Ginny loved the velvety feeling of the short hair.

Not caring what they were doing their hands started wandering, Ginny was still wearing her Bridesmaid's dress which had a separate bodice and skirt and when Harry's hands found the fastenings on the back of the bodice he started to undo them. Ginny stopped him, stood up took his hand and led him into the bedroom she was using that night. Once there she started kissing him again and they started to undress each other. When they were down to panties and boxers they drifted over to the bed and climbed in together.

As surreptitiously as she could Ginny cast a contraception spell as they started to kiss again. The passion between them flared and gently they made love for the first time. Twice more during the night they had wakened and made love and now they had woken in each others arms.

"Ginny?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Any regrets from last night?"

"No, you?"

"No, but this may sound strange and may be too soon, will you marry me? If you need time to think, take it, but the offer stands just say yes when you are ready"

"Yes"

"Yes?"

"Yes, I'll marry you, I've waited for you since I was 10, I'm not letting you go now"

Just at that Molly entered Ginny's room and stood shocked to see her daughter naked in bed with a man, she couldn't see who the man was as he had his back to her and started to rant at her daughter.

"Ginevra Weasley, what do you" was as far as she got as Ginny cast a silencing charm on her.

"Mum, go downstairs for breakfast, we'll join you in 10 minutes, get dad and the others there too."

As Molly left still fuming, Harry called for one of his elves to bring him some fresh clothes and after casting a quick cleansing charm on both him and Ginny, they dressed and made their way down to the breakfast room.

Harry and Ginny entered hand in hand, seated round the table were Arthur, and Molly, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie and their wives and children. The children all ran over and hugged their favourite aunt and uncle, Harry was "Uncle Harry" to all the Weasley grandchildren and had a tendency to spoil them. He also joined in their games when other adults wouldn't and had been known to give broomstick rides when the other adults weren't looking.

Harry cleared his throat. "Ginny and I have some things to tell you, as Molly may have mentioned, Ginny and I are together again, but best of all, Ginny has agreed to marry me, I only wish Ron and Hermione were here too."

After a few moments of stunned silence the happy couple were surrounded by the whole Weasley family being congratulated and for the rest of their lives Harry swore he heard Molly say "Emerald green Bridesmaids dresses to match his eyes."

Six months later they were married, the Bridesmaids wore emerald green.

_Epilogue_

_It was fourteen years since what had been dubbed the wedding of the decade, Harry and Ginny Potter stood on Platform 9¾ at Kings Cross Station and watched as their eldest twin girls Lily and Jamie boarded the Hogwarts express each carrying a kitten in a basket._

_"Now you two, remember you're going to Hogwarts to learn, not too many pranks please."_

_"Okay, dad" they replied in unison._

_They and six younger children some with tears in their eyes watched and waved as the train pulled out of the station, Harry put his hands on Ginny's slightly swollen abdomen, "Twins again, love?"_

_"No, quads, with these four all you need to do now is become Minister of Magic and Trelawney's prediction comes true."_

_"Oh, didn't I tell you, I decided to accept the nomination this time."_


End file.
